


Water from a slave’s mouth

by Itohan



Series: To walk amongst the stars (Star Wars AU’s) [17]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark, Dark Anakin Skywalker, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, F/M, Force Suppression (Star Wars), Former Padawan Anakin Skywalker, Heavy Angst, Hurt Anakin Skywalker, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Non-Consensual Drug Use, POV reader, Planet Tatooine (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Pre-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Rape Aftermath, Sexual Abuse, Slave Anakin Skywalker, Slave Reader, Slavery, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, TRIGGER WARNING: explicit sexual assault in chapter two, Tatooine Slave Culture (Star Wars), Tatooine Slave Revolution (Star Wars), injuries, non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:21:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29561133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Itohan/pseuds/Itohan
Summary: "Do not waste water you were given," your mother had said. "Even if it comes from a dead man's mouth. Do what you must to survive."She'd died two years after you first became slaves.Three years after her death you meet Anakin, the newest slave of your owner’s estate, and life suddenly seems to shift. You begin to dream of freedom.Once Anakin dreamed of freeing the slaves. He’s never thought himself to ever be in chains again,  only to learn the harsh truth of the world - once a slave, always a slave.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Reader, Anakin Skywalker/Reader
Series: To walk amongst the stars (Star Wars AU’s) [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759843
Comments: 15
Kudos: 24





	1. Sunrise

"Do not waste water you were given," your mother had said. "Even if it comes from a dead man's mouth. Do what you must to survive."

She'd died two years into your slavery.

**________________**

The second thing you noticed about the newest slave was his hair. It had been cut unevenly, a small patch on his right looking longer than the rest of it. However, the first thing you had noticed when he was tossed into your cell, were the bloody gashes across his chest.

Yet his head was still held tall and he didn't cower. The slave walked in circles with a grace no mere slave possessed. He must have been a nobleman, you thought as you got out your healing supplies. You didn't let your eyes wander far from him.

His body was still lean with muscle and the fat of his cheeks hadn't disappeared yet, they weren't hollowed with malnourishment. He looked as if he had once been something who mattered, someone with a life.  
He could be a threat.

When you collected everything you needed, not flinching under his own accessing eyes (they were blue, you realized) you hesitantly offered to clean up the wounds the new slave wore on his chest. Created by whips.

"What did you do?" you finally asked. You dipped the rag in your hands into the tincture before applying it to the bleeding flesh, ignoring his wince at the contact.

He scowled, biting his teeth together while you worked your fingers on the raw skin of his chest.  
"What is it to you?"

You understood him. Trusting people meant death. The only thing one had was your life and here you did not even own that, so why shouldn't you tell on another slave if it meant your survival?

"Do you see anyone else cleaning up your wounds?" You looked him in the eyes and began applying the strips of cloth left over from his torn shirt. "No one will show you any kindness around here, not even your own body. I am only helping you so your screams won't wake me in the night."

You didn't tell him the real reason, that you took pity on him, that you saw something in his eyes that gave you hope. His determination, his hatred, they had kept him strong and they would keep him alive. You were sure he was not meant to die yet.

You could see him shivering, hands clutching at what had been left of his clothes.

After taking another glance at him, you sighed and bent down to retrieve and then give him the small bundle of clothes you had been hiding underneath your cot. Once the clothes of your last cellmate, then your spares, and now his to wear. They were dirty, ripped and there were stains on the fabric you would never be able to get out, yet you'd never seen anyone as grateful as him when you offered them to him. You offered him some dignity.

"My name is Anakin," the other slave finally said. "And I'm a person."

You nodded back at Anakin and replied with your own.

Anakin was a Jedi, you soon found out. A Jedi who'd been stripped of the Force, now neither an apprentice nor a freed man anymore. It took just one shot, he'd said, just one and they had injected the drug into his system. It would take months for it to get out and then they would do it once again.

He didn't tell you how he'd gotten so far out into the Outer Rim to get captured by the pirates that would end up selling him to your Master's estate. But you suspected he must have run away from his Order.

"What about you?" he asked on the seventh day, slowly easing into his new routine of talking to you. But never easing back into being a slave. A slave once freed would never bow down to a slaver again, you knew that.

"I've been here for," you stopped to count back the years. "Five years." You nodded to yourself. "It must be five years by now that I've been here enslaved on Tatooine. And three years since my mother passed."

He didn't ask what happened to your mother and you did not ask what had happened to his Yet you could see he felt visibly more at ease with you. A small victory in a life full of losses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know what’s wrong with me to write these kind of stories. Strike that, I do know what’s wrong with me.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked the first albeit short chapter. The next ones are definitely longer!


	2. The nightmare comes when the suns set

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How far can one person be pushed until they snap? - The reality of being a slave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **TW:Rape**  
>  Not romanticized rape - but real, horrible and terrifying rape and all the associated feelings that come with it. Reader and Anakin’s emotions are partly based on personal experience and partly on research. But most comes from on my own experienced emotions so please don’t shout at me for my choice of how to write this chapter. If you don’t like how I portrayed any of this, please just tell me politely in the comments.
> 
>  **You’ve been warned.**  
>  If you’d prefer not reading something most likely triggering, please click off this story. Thank you.

Starting merely weeks after your first meeting Anakin's back was caked with bruises trailing all the way down to his legs. Bite marks on his neck, handprints on his thighs. The very same you wore on your own.

"You are only so young." You reached over to touch the spare places where there was still soft untainted skin left. Why are they doing this to you?"

"The same reason they do it to you. Why they rape any of us," he answered and you averted your eyes. "Power."

Each night he came back fresh with more scars and marks - you'd take care of him.

"You are so good for holding still," you whispered while you dressed his wounds in bandages.  
"I'm proud of you."  
"You are strong, Anakin."  
And you meant every single word you said.

He seemed to come alive under your touch, leaning into the warmth of your hands whenever you put them on him. Whenever you stroked through his hair and cleaned his cuts.

Until one night when you were fast asleep the Master came into your cell.

The Master's voice carried on through the small room. Degrading the boy underneath him, threatening with every thrust into him, ignoring his unwilling cries.

"How does it feel, Jedi? How does it feel to be reduced to something even lower than a mere human?"

Another groan. The slapping of skin grew louder and louder until it was all you could hear. Louder than your heartbeat even, louder than any ship could ever be.

You opened your eyes to slits, fearing them to spot you.

All you could make out in the faint light was Anakin bent over on the floor right next to your cot, skin flushed pink and tears spilling down his face. The Master thrusting into him. Large hands wrapped neatly around Anakin's cock, speeding up with every thrust of his.

You couldn't breathe and you couldn't help Anakin. You were useless.

"Imagine what she looks like under me when I impregnate her with my child. How full her belly will become," the Master taunted. "What do you think she'd say right now if she were awake, seeing me fucking you right next to her?"

A loud whine and Anakin had come. You recognized it in the shame on his face and your Master's sudden laughter. All sound died down for a minute before picking up again the very second something was wiped on Anakin's face.

You sobbed silently, vision clouded with tears. Why hadn't anyone come to save him? Where were the Jedi that had proclaimed him the Chosen One? Where were they when he needed them?"

You saw Anakin being punched in the back, nails digging into the raw flesh you had spent so many nights mending.

"Some kind of god you are. Ruining my hand with your filth."

You heard every whimper, every moan of pain and it made you want to die. You were meant to protect him and you would do so, even if it meant offering your body twice over to the Master. You couldn't bear seeing Anakin break. You were already broken, nothing there for you to lose. He would not lose his will, he would survive.

You couldn't look Anakin in the eye as you cleaned him of the foreign seed and his own blood. If you did, you thought, he might be able to tell the choice you had made. He wouldn't let you, and so you kept silent as you cared for him once more.

You pretended nothing had happened as you stifled his cries in your embrace.  
He deserved so much better.

**________________**

Many months had passed by the time the two of you were sent out to work in the courtyard. Each carrying one a large bucket of water across the sandy terrain. It was then that for a split second your mind and your mouth disconnected.

"Why is there no one coming for you?" you asked before you had time to stop yourself.

Anakin's shoulders dropped.

"I- I don't think they want to come for me. They never wanted me in the first place, always found ways to make me feel like nothing. Now that I'm truly nothing they wouldn't want me anymore. Not even..." he stopped and wiped over his eyes with the sleeve that covered his flesh arm.

"They must have cared enough for you to give you that." You pointed at the other hand of his.

Anakin just shook his head.

You tried not to think of his former life again, but you couldn't help seeing the Jedi in him. In the way he moved, the kindness he showed his fellows. He did not belong here.

You didn't enjoy thinking of the injection he would most likely be facing soon again but someone had to. It wouldn't be right of you to get invested in a dream world when your only friend faced such treatment in the near future. While you did not understand the Force and certainly did not want to, it did not mean that you weren't willing to listen for him go on about it for hours. Which he did. Often. In the middle of the night when you were trying to sleep, not that you would fault him. Trying to preserve some sense of normality was only human.

"How long until they do _that_ to you again?" you asked, carrying on behind him at a slightly slower pace than his. How he could still remain so strong even after months of imprisonment was nothing short of puzzling to you.

"I don't know," came the answer. "I keep hoping my powers will come back, that I'll be complete again. Yet I-I feel as if my heart been ripped out with every second the Force isn't with me. My existence feel wrong if I cannot wield it."

Maybe he'd seen the confused frown on your face or he'd just realized that you as a non-force-sensitive would never understand what he meant. Anakin gestured for you to come closer, you followed, still keeping your bucket close to your body not willing to let the water spill.

"It's hard to describe," he said. "The Force is me and yet it isn't. An extra set of eyes wouldn't be comparable because there is nothing that could ever come close to what it is like. I..." he stopped and used the strength of his metal arm to pick up both buckets. Your shoulders eased now that the heavy weight was gone. He was a kind boy, you thought.

"I might show it to you one day," he smiled at you, dimples showing. "When the day comes for us to be free once more."

You allowed yourself to be swept up in his hopefulness.

And then he was screaming. He was screaming and you could not help him.

Anakin fell down to his knees, the buckets hitting the ground, water spilling over the desert sand, disappearing within seconds. His hands were in his hair, ripping, tearing at it as he screamed and trashed against whatever had overcome him.

"Anakin, stop," you begged. "Stop and be quiet!"

You clawed your hands into the skin of his back, desperate for him to realize where he was. You couldn't be kind, not when you had to keep yourself, yourself and him both, alive.

"Anakin, Anakin I beg you! You'll kill both of us if you don't stop!"  
Your voice grew shriller with every second the Master did not show up. It did not bode well. The longer this commotion went on, the harsher the punishment would be. You had to get Anakin to stop before anyone showed up.

Your shoulders tensed and the air left your lungs. Black boots stopping in front of you.

You whimpered. "No."

Then you were ripped off Anakin, hands harshly holding onto your neck as they raised you up.They would punish him.They would kill him, rape him to death and all you could do was watch-

"Not him. I'll bear you a child, a son, I will stop struggling I- Anything," you cried. "Just- just let him be."

Approving eyes glanced over you as Anakin's shouts grew in volume. There was no possibility of him not having heard you. Yet he kept on twitching and twisting as he fought against himself, as if he weren't the master of his own limbs anymore. A slave to his own body.

"Fine, woman."

You felt yourself being thrown over your Master's shoulder, your legs tight in his grip, your back against his as you hung limply over his back. But your eyes were on Anakin.

Anakin whose body was turning smaller and smaller the further you got away. You couldn't even see him anymore, couldn't hear his screams. But you knew he had to be screaming, in rage, in pain. There was no world where he wouldn't be screaming. You could only hope he one day would find the power in his heart to forgive you for breaking his trust. But you couldn't let him be a victim anymore, you'd promised yourself you would take care of him. You wouldn't break that promise.

You never trusted your Master's words but today you had to. Those words were the only guarantee you had of Anakin's continued survival.

You closed your eyes and let your body grow soft - the Master would make it hurt less if you didn't struggle. You couldn't scream. You wanted and wanted and wanted, but no sound left you. Frozen. Suffocating in your own body.

**________________**

When you came across Anakin again, days after you'd last seen him, he was on floor of your cell half lying on the hay, half prepped up on the ground. A puncture wound visible on his neck, his face marred with bruises and caked in his own blood. But he was alive. They hadn't killed or used his body, they'd only subdued his powers. Though that must have seemed like the same thing to him, your mind supplied.

The very second you stepped into the room you shared with him, you began undressing hastily. Slipping out of the torn nightgown you'd been forced to wear for the Master's pleasure and back into your own clothes. Clothes that hid the bruises, marks and bites. You ignored Anakin's eyes burning into your back, the way his breath hitched, the tears stinging in your eyes.

"Why?" he asked once you sat down next to him, his hand flickering to yours. Fingers cold against your own.

"It doesn't matter," you said. Even though your mind wanted to answer 'You tell me first'.  
You didn't want to know and you did not want him to hear what had taken place from your lips. You couldn't.

You knew that he knew what had happened to you. How could he not? But you would not have him say it, this much you could ask for. Just like you weren't going to ask about the Force suppressor he had been injected in your absence.

Instead you forced your tired feet to stay still as you sat by his side. Because you wanted to. Even more than you wished for sleep. His hand kept brushing against yours but he never did take it. You did not know if he was scared, if he didn't want to or if maybe it truly was just by accident. Lately, you thought, you did not know much of anything.

"Can I hold your hand?" you asked with an air of finality. Your heart beating hard against your chest, almost up to your throat. You swallowed down the nervousness, dry like your mouth. And he, he took hold of your hand with his, warm and soft, and for a moment you felt innocent once again like you were like any other woman in this galaxy.

A paper bowl was tossed through a slit in the door, hitting the space next to you loudly, causing your shoulders to shoot up and your hand to let go of Anakin's. You refrained from checking what reaction Anakin might be wearing on his face and looked down at the bowl.

There was barely anything left in it. It must have gone through other slaves first, each taking a bite out to fill their starving stomachs.

Once upon a time in a life too long ago to consider your own, a life where you had been free, you'd never have looked twice at it, but in this life of slavery you were too hungry for such thoughts.

Anakin's arm reached over to get the bowl closer to you, his elbow accidentally brushing against your chest. You recoiled, all hunger having left you entirely.

"You can have the scraps. I'll eat tomorrow."

You hastily pushed the bowl towards Anakin. More bones than meat and less bread than crumbs, but it was food. Just to survive another day.

He looked as if he wanted to protest, to tell you that you with your bony fingers and aching ribs should be eating instead. You gave him a look, one as earnest as you had the strength to muster. There was no chance for you to survive this, to ever become free once more, so what difference would it make if you'd let him eat? He, who still had flesh and muscle and a will that no slaver's whip could break. He'd live, you were sure. So you would make him eat.

"Eat," you said. "Eat and survive for one more day. Eat so you can free us of our chains. Eat so you'll last another beating."

This night you went to bed with the familiar pang of hunger while Anakin slept soundly next to you on the hay. You lied on your cot, wondering, dreaming of days where you would feel rain on your skin.

You shifted, now facing Anakin, watching him shake and quiver in his sleep. Watching his eyelids flutter. What could he be dreaming of, you wondered, hugging the thin sheet closer around yourself. You almost forgot about the hunger shaking in your bones as you imagined his lips ghosting over yours. Imagined him being the one to take you to bed instead of your Master.

You turned over, away from him.

"Anakin," you whispered. "Anakin, when will this life ever stop?"

He didn't answer for he was asleep, his mind having disappeared to a place you could not follow.

**________________**

"We're cleaning the kitchens today until noon arrives," the little blond boy, who had called you out of your cell several mornings later, mumbled, hands twirling with his sleeves while he spoke to you.

Next to you, you saw Anakin trembling. You hoped he wouldn't scream.

"We will follow you," you answered and without thinking about it opened up your palm to Anakin. A small moment of hesitation and then he was holding on to your hand as you pulled him along behind you towards your destination.

When the two of you now only walked a few paces behind the child, Anakin's expression shifted and suddenly grew solemn.

"What is it?" you asked quietly.

"He looks just like me as a boy. Looking at him... It brought up bad memories I'd rather forget."

"How about I clean one half of the first kitchen with him while you do the other?" you said and gave his hand a squeeze. You thought he looked rather pretty when he was happy and you smiled when he returned the gesture. That hand felt warm with him by your side. For him you would pretend to be happy, you decided.

"Hurry," called the small voice in front of you.

And back you were in the harsh reality. You let go of Anakin's hand and stepped into the first of many kitchens in the compound which you would be cleaning today.

**________________**

Something crashed to the floor behind you, splintering.

You flinched but your mouth stayed shut. You did not shriek, not when the Master had just stepped in and startled the boy. You couldn't fail at your duties too.

The broom you were holding rattled in your hands when you heard the Master scolding the boy for letting the plates fall down. You tried not to think whether the child would grow to see the next day or if it would be reunited with it's dead mother tonight. Dead like all disobedient slaves.

The Master turned to address you, motioning to the broom in your hands and the mess on the ground. "Clean this up."

You nodded, your hands tightening, nails digging into flesh. You could not show fear. You closed your eyes, blinking away memories, blinking away the ghost of fingers biting into your hips.  
"Yes, Master."

Behind you could faintly hear Anakin mumbling to himself, his voice full of rage, seething. But he didn't step in. He obeyed and continued cleaning.

You felt like dying. Hairs standing up, dread in your stomach, breath falling flat. You could feel the eyes on your form, watching every flinch, every move. They stayed on you, caging you in.  
But they didn't notice you slipping a shard into the hairs of the broom.

The very second the Master stepped away and out of the room, Anakin was by your side holding you. You couldn’t tell who was steadying, comforting, who.

"It will be okay, it will all be fine. You did well," you said, forgetting your own tears as you tried to soothe his.

"You are saving us,” Anakin answered gently as he bent down and pocketed the shard out of it's hiding place. He placed into his mouth and then it was gone as if it had never existed. He hid it for you, you knew. For you to use as you pleased. For you to kill with.

You wondered if his mouth would taste like blood if you'd kissed it.

Hours later when you were about to fall asleep to the sound of Anakin's breathing coming from the hay, the door to your cell was opened.

"Get up."

You froze. From your toes, to your mouth, you couldn't move, you couldn't speak. Fear.

"Get up!" your Master called again, his face now hovering above your cot. You could smell his breath, the last meal he had eaten, and the rotten stink of sweat rolling off him. You bowed your head and nodded, you would follow him.

You quickly straightened up the sheet you'd been sleeping on the cot with, slipping the shard you had hidden there into your hand. Suddenly the urge to turn your head towards the hay where Anakin lied sleeping, unaware of what was transpiring, overcame you. Only to be met with his eyes wide open and staring right at you.  
He was awake.

Had he been awaiting the Master's call as well? Had he forgotten about the exchange you'd made - his life for yours?

And then before you had any chance to explain, you were tugged back by the arms of the man that owned you, away from the only person that might ever understand, towards a chamber into the furthest wing away where only shame and misery would prevail. A chamber with no guards to hear you scream, no way for them to take mercy on you and give you a way out. Just you and him.

Lips on your chest. Teeth on your neck. You lied still on your Master's bed, hands curled tightly, shard cutting into your flesh.

Hand twisting and tugging and waiting.  
Eyes closing, imagining to be in a land more beautiful than this place could ever be.

Claws closing around your soul, hands digging into your breasts. No scream, no whimper, just caged silently within yourself. Touches wandering around you and you imagined yourself dying.

"Spread your legs wide open and lie still," the voice chuckled above you. Like it had done so many times over, his cock spearing you open again and again as you lied motionless.

You raised the shard.

"It hurts," you said, eyes focused on the neck above you. You offered him this one chance to prove the worth of his life, the last bit of the person you once were coming through. You had been good once. Now you were a slave and it was his fault.

His hand clamped above your mouth, holding it shut as he sped up chasing after his release.  
Faster. Tears. Harder. Pain. Rutting turning into ferocity, about to reach his peak-

You brought the shard down.

In the end he bled red just like everyone else. You laughed hysterically, tears running down your cheeks as that feeling overcame you. He was no better than you and he'd never been.

You cleaned yourself in his fresher, slowly taking in the warm sensations. It was the first true shower you had in years. You counted yourself lucky that night and for once you believed that maybe, maybe things would turn for the better. But the shard remained in your hand, tightly claimed by your grip. The clothes were tossed in the room where they stored the dead slaves, fitting in perfectly with the bloodied rags and mangled bodies.

You hoped that wherever they were now, they'd rejoiced in their Master's death.  
After your small moment of absolution you continued on back to where your cell was, where Anakin was waiting for you.

**________________**

"If anyone asks," Anakin said, taking the bloody shard out of your hands and throwing it into the hay. "Then I'll say it was me."

"No-"

Anakin took a hold of your bleeding hand, eyes transfixed by the trickling flow of red. "I won't listen to you, you must know that. I will say it was me and you are going to be safe."

"I did it for you," you whispered. "He would have killed you eventually like he does to all the boys he takes. If I were to bear him a child, he would not have killed me. I would have had a safer position in this household if only I remained still and took it-" Tears rolled down your cheeks, cold and salty. "But how could I have let him kill you? I'd rather die myself when they find me the culprit. You have something to live for, Anakin. Don't die, let me be the one to suffer for my actions."

"What if," he suggested."What if neither of us had to die?" He finally looked into your eyes, determination written over his own. "What if _they_ all died?"

"Who will kill them?"

"Us. Every single slave they abused will be avenged by us and they will not get any mercy." He pulled you closer and you let him.

"They deserve to. For what they did to me." His hand tightened so hard around yours that you feared he might crush it. But you did not recoil. "For what they did to you. For every single day spent on this hellhole. **And they will pay, every single one of them**."

"I'll follow you."

"And I you."  
The smile he wore might would have been called deranged by any other person but you. To you it was the most beautiful thing you'd ever seen, because he was the one who'd come to free you. You would let him do everything as long as there was hope for a better tomorrow. You might even have called it love once upon a time.

That night only when your eyes fell shut you allowed your mind to wonder if he might love you too. In the morning when you were woken up for your chores you'd already forgotten the thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah that was heavy.  
> ANYWAY, what you think of this chapter? Good or bad? Did it make you want to run me over with a tractor?
> 
> That update is like really early buuut I’m impatient and just wanted this chapter out.
> 
> What to expect of the next and most likely last chapter (if it doesn’t get too long): A dream is realized.


	3. The night is when the revolution rises

You wiped your eyes, awoken by the loud call of your name and Anakin's from outside of your cell. Your mind was blank in an instance no residue of sleep left.

"Good morning," you said quietly and got up to sit down on the ground next to Anakin. You were about to put a hand on his shoulder to steer him awake when you noticed how bad he looked. Sweat soaked, skin flushed and panting horribly.

Anakin was sick.  
Only a groan indicated he was truly awake at all.

"What..?"

"Pshht, you can stay asleep, Anakin." You bent down to tuck your sheet over him only to be met by his hands tugging on your own to take the sheet himself. Almost like a child.

"Alright."  
Anakin nodded groggily and closed his eyes again.

"I'll be back later,” you assured him as you closed the door behind you and went to follow the guards..

"Where's your cellmate?" you were asked by one of the guards pushing on the large group of servants. You could already see the annoyance growing on her face and you cursed internally. Sometimes you were in luck when it came to who you'd serve under, this certainly did not look to be one of these days. Your started walking alongside her.

You bowed your head faintly and kept your eyes on the ground. "He is sick." After a small pause you added, "A fever but I am not sure if it's desert fever or the common one."

The guard pushed a slave, who had stopped to listen in, forwards. "No pauses!"  
She addressed you again and pulled out a datapad in which she typed something you could not seee. "You are going to do his share of work today. If he's not better by the end of the week, he will be put down."

"Yes! Of course!" you assured her, desperate to forgo another beating. You did not know what 'work' would be today but it did not matter as long as neither of you got in trouble.

You watched her add more to whatever she had written.

After finishing and putting the datapad away to where she had taken it from before, she cleared her throat as if having suddenly remembered something. "The same goes for you if he does not improve or you get ill yourself by catching whatever that creature has. Better two slaves dead than a whole block unusable." She chuckled and motioned for you to walk up to join the others you had fallen behind of during the conversation.

You were pushed into the swarm of slaves.

You recognized the majority, all of them coming from the same block as you. Some even from the same slave market as you had been. You quickly fell into step with a young girl you knew from past interaction's to be named Myrca.

"Why are there so many of us?" you whispered to her. You didn't like this, not knowing what would be coming next. There had never been a time where so many of you were sent out before. You wiped the sweat of your hands off on your shirt, barely holding back the pained shout waiting at the back of your throat. Howe were you supposed to get through this day's chores when you couldn't even take the sting of your own sweat agains the cut on your hand?This was concerning. You almost... almost felt as if you were on way to your execution just from how tense the air was.

"They are sending us to the kitchens to prepare the dishes for today's feast," Myrca's voice to your right whispered back to you. She gently tugged on your sleeve, pulling you closer to her. You huddled together, now effectively shielding yourselves from any unwelcome listeners to some degree.

"What feast?" You wiped your hands over your shirt again. You'd never been in one of the kitchens before to cook, only ever to keep those clean. Why now?

She looked at you as if you'd grown a second head.

"The one the estate is throwing to celebrate the murder of the old Master. I know what you did and we-" Someone coughed and Myrca's eyes widened and immediately shifted eyes into the direction of the guards. Your back tensed. What was known of yesterday's events? Was this a trap? What- "We are planing something big. Soon we will find ourselves free! Yesterday was the sig-" Suddenly her voice went up in volume, "It's a great honor, isn't it? Getting to prepare the food the honorable guests will be eating brings joy to my heart!"

The guards were watching you gesturing at the slaves and at something on their datapads you could not see.

Your hands tightened to fists, the inside your mind replaying what the very same hands had done the night before.

"Yes, such an honor indeed."

Yesterday these hands had killed, today they would cook.

"You and you!" A guard whirled around to point at you and another woman, one older than you by decades, who you did not know. "You go to kitchen one over here."

"The rest of you, follow me!"

**_______________**

"Where have they taken all the knives? How are we supposed to cook? With those spoons over here?" you asked, hands shuffling around in another empty drawer. No knives had been in any of the other ones.

"Someone stabbed the Master in the dead of the night," the old woman whispered to you, her arms shaking at the weight of the many vegetables she was carrying for the soup you were preparing. "He didn't make it."

You relieved her of some of that weight in her arms. "Do they know who?" You felt your eyes flickering to the guard standing at the door. Myrca had known but that did not mean everyone else did.

"No, not yet," she answered before lowering her voice to an even quieter tone. "But whoever did it is a hero. The new Master is kinder I hear. He had been the quarter-master of the east wing for a decade before rising up in rank so suddenly." She broke a carrot in two and threw it into the simmering pot.

You saw her looking down at your wrists, coloured by bruises old and new, and her eyes turned eyes solemn. Her own hands were shaking.

"He doesn't beat the ones he takes to his bed. That must be the only kindness the world is willing to offer us."

When you were returned to your cell later after a day, limbs aching and throat thirsty, Anakin still lied in the hay unmoving.

You rushed to kneel down besides him and put a hand on Anakin's hot sweat-soaked forehead. "It's getting worse," you realized. And then you felt yourself panicking, all common sense having left you. If he were to die... You would be alone again. Alone in this horrible world and he'd- he- "You'll have to keep going through the fever, you can't die, Anakin! I need you need to stay awake. You hear me? Stay awake for me just this once and tomorrow this will be over! I promise."

All throughout the night Anakin was screaming while you sat at his side, crying and for once feeling lost like the slave you were. You could not protect anyone. Anakin would die just like your mother had and leave you behind.

You forced more of the water from your water-skin down his throat. "You can't die. I won't allow it. Drink, Anakin." In your mind's eye you saw your mother's beaten corpse, yourself screaming, the guards whipping you for disobeying- You squeezed your eyes shut.

"Anakin, don't die. You need to free us. So, you can't die."

You didn't tell him that you loved him. You would do so when you were free, only when you were free. This love, it was the only thing you owned - the only part of yourself you got to keep and hide in your heart. You couldn't give it away, not yet. Only when you were free would you tell him. Then- Then you were going to allow Anakin to lay claim to your heard and call it his own.

Anakin curled his hand around your arm and you smiled through the tears. He was strong - he wouldn't die. You had known so from the day you and him were fated to meet. Anakin would live to see the two sun's rise once more.

**_______________**

Only weeks later, when Anakin wasn't sick anymore and your first bounce of paranoia had worn off, did you seek out Myrca. The two of you had been cleaning one of the many libraries tired and in quiet until you finally broke the silence.

"The doors to our cells," you asked her, "will they open if the control panel is destroyed?"

"What are you talking about?" she hissed and scrubbed the desk she had been leaning over more harshly. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"No. I am not."

The next week you tried again, telling her more of your plan to free everyone of their chains. Even cautiously telling her about Anakin. You needed to gain her trust. You needed her knowledge and her ability to get out word to other slaves. And she knew that.

"Why doesn't he use his arm to fight back? That's an advantage we don't have and he is not even using it! He could have killed the old Master so many months ago!"

"What do you think would happen next?" You questioned, hands tightening around the broom as you swept. "They would cut it off. Just like they cut off his access to the Force. But together..." you smiled. "Together they won't be able to stop us. For each of us that falls two more will rise and we won't stop until the last drop of their blood has been shed."

"But he can tell you all about that himself, just ask him."  
You went back to cleaning.

The following day you found yourself observing Anakin while he talked to the other slaves. Captivating, bewitching, there were no other ways to describe him in his true element.  
He was a leader, an usurper, a god - he was everything. He'd be the one to start a revolution, no one but him and there simply was no person you could have ever loved more than him. It only took whispered words, nothing more than hushes, but you knew they'd follow him. They'd follow him anywhere.

And he'd follow you.

**_______________**

  
The night before the one you Anakin and you would be sent to clean the control center, you sat in your cell planning. The control center was where the generator was housed, the only way to open all door and all cells.

"Someone," you said but thought 'Myrca', "has pushed around in our schedules. An ally, a friend it does not matter. We cannot let this go to waste. We have to succeed or else we will die and the opportunity with us."

"I agree." Anakin picked out the shard that he had hidden for weeks inside of the hay. "Tomorrow night we break free. No more chains, no more masters!"

**_______________**

The guard that night was the same one you'd had on the day Anakin was sick, you noticed.

Neither you or Anakin talked on the way there. You just couldn't, not when freedom was so close you could taste it. One wrong move and you would be on your way back to your cells never to be close to the this chance ever again.

Anakin carried the shard in his hand, if they sent you back they would notice and then you would be executed. So this, this was the only way.

When you arrived in the control center the guard immediately threw her stuff on the desk, yawning. "Do your jobs and clean this dump up." She motioned to her blaster. "Or else."

You nodded and began cleaning the desk, sending dust and sand flying into her direction. Your eyes found Anakin's. You nodded.

"Watch out you imbecile!"

"Oh, I am sorry!" you cried and threw yourself to the floor, bringing down her datapad and other objects with you. "Forgive me! I'll clean this up- I am so sorry!"

You could glimpse at Anakin creeping up between the woman, metal arm outstretched and awaiting. Shard shining in the light.

"Forgive me, please, I beg you!"

Anakin got closer.

The guard's gaze suddenly wandered from you to the tiles and her shoulders tensed. Ready to strike. You shifted your eyes from her face towards what she was observing so intensely. Your eyes found the datapad, spotting Anakin's advancing reflection in the black screen and you blanched.

"Anakin, watch out!"

The guard ripped her blaster out of her holster and shot at Anakin, hitting him in the leg.  
Anakin slumped down to the floor, in shock.

She turned her eyes toward you and kneeled above you, blaster trained on your head.

You couldn't hear anything anymore. Nothing but the ragged sound of your breathing and the blood pumping though your veins. There was only now or never. Death or survival.  
There were no other thoughts, only instinct, only the wish to live. There was no room for empathy someone who had never shown you it either. There was no room for hesitation.

You grabbed the thing closest to you and slammed up into her face, sending her crashing to he floor. Inside your hands was the datapad, blood splattered and splintering where it had met her head. You brought it down again and again but the woman would not back down, scratching against your face, hand wandering towards her blaster-

Suddenly Anakin's limp body twisted up, hand raising the shard and cutting through the woman's throat too fast for her to react. The body went down with a thud and Anakin stepped over her towards you, crushing bones beneath his boots as he came closer.

"I'm alright," you told Anakin and slowly got up, world spinning around you. "Now, Anakin, let's make them pay."

Anakin raised his metal hand above the control panel, eyes locked onto yours, awaiting your command.

You wiped the blood off his lips with your thumb. "Do it."

Anakin's fist shattered the panel, fingers ripping through the cables, destroying the one thing between you and freedom. Then darkness. No sound but your breathing.  
Your lips met.

Anakin's were soft against your own, soft like the early morning but hungry and merciless like the night. Insatiable. Hands tightening around your waist, pulling you closer as if to keep you safe from the darkness. His mouth tasted like blood.

You opened your eyes.  
Cries. From everywhere.

War cries.

"Do you know what we have done?" Anakin breathed against you.  
You wondered what kind of expression he must be wearing right now in the darkness.

You let go of him and wiped over your eyes. But the tears kept coming until finally you fell to your knees weeping. Five years worth of repressed emotions escaping you with no care for the world around you. "We've done it. This is it... We've- we-" After all these years you would finally get to see the world through the eyes of a freed woman! You could leave this, everything, all these memories behind forever. No one to command you anymore. More tears escaped. Everything would be over soon. You were going to be free. Free!

"Get up! Come on, get up!" Anakin roughly lifted you up by your arm pits, ripping you out of shock.

Finally sirens set in and red light bathed over the compound. The emergency generator had kicked in. But it would make no difference - not when all of you were free. Not when the doors had already opened. Not when there were hundreds of you.

"They won't survive this," Anakin promised.

You ripped the blaster out of the dead guard's hands. "I know."

"We are going to kill all of them. Every single one. Just like they did to us. Men," you took a new power cell from her belt and loaded it into the weapon, "women and children. There can't be anyone left to activate our chips."

"No survivors."

Together you navigated through the chaos in the halls until finally you found the abandoned chambers of the Master.

"They have to keep the controls or the codes here. Something!" you said and began searching desperately.

You ripped through drawers and shelves, smashed books and papers to the floor, but nowhere could you find the remote controls. "Where the fuck are they? We need them- How can they keep so much useless shit-" you threw a ceramic statue against the wall, "but not the codes to the bombs inside of us? Fuck! Fuck!" You halted in your movements when you spotted something glimmering inside the back of the drawer.

A lightsaber.

"Anakin," you called, your hands closing around the cool grip, "Anakin, come."

You thrust your hands towards him. Look what I found, they seemed to scream.

"My saber," Anakin whispered, staggering in surprise as he limped closer. You struggled to keep your hands still, fearing accidentally activating his saber. He took it from you, careful of his strength and the adrenaline pushing inside.

You observed him carefully. "Will you still be able to fight with this even without the Force?"

"I will."

He threw the blaster he had found into your open hand.

"I was born for this. I was born a slave and I was born the chosen one." The saber activated with a hiss, illuminating him in the blue light. Anakin's face a mask of indiscernible emotions as twirled the blade in his grip. "And such they will die by my hand."

"It's better if we part ways here," Anakin told you. His voice left no room for disagreement.  
But you wouldn't have protested anyway, you had your own agenda to fulfill and now was the time.

You stepped into opposite hallways. Him to the left and you to the right. You knew where you had to go, knew the way as good as you had once known the way around your home.

When you finally reached your destination you stopped and took a look inside. Inside the room where, just like you had hoped, the very same cruel people you had served in the compound over five years ago. The first group you ever had to call your owners. You had to take a second look to reassure yourself you weren't dreaming.

But no, you were not dreaming. These were the people that had beat your mother to death in front of your eyes three years ago.

These people who had robbed your mother of her life in the most inhumane way possible were now huddling together and crying as three of your fellow slaves were surrounding them. The woman and the two men were holding big containers from which they each spread a clear liquid over the floor and the furniture. They looked ecstatic to take their revenge.

Your former owners finally noticed you. Fear in their eyes as clear as day."Help us! You can't let them do this! If the house burns so will you! Have some common sense, please! Stop them!"

You pat your chin as if deep in thought. Seconds passed, however, you had already made your choice long ago. The corners of your mouth twisted up and you allowed yourself to smile. You gestured for the other woman and the men to come to you.

"No."

You raised your blaster and shot into the puddle.  
**_______________**

You ran through the carnage, shooting at any nobles fleeing from the flames, coming closer to the exit when you were forced to stop by a screaming crowd in the hallway. The flames were only coming closer and smoke was thick in the air yet the did no move. They _could_ not move because the exit was blocked by the last of the guards and the nobles shooting blindly into the mass of people.

"Stay back, savages!" It was the voice of the Master, the one that had come after you killed the first.

You raised the blaster and shot. Miss. The heat kept growing and your clothes were clinging to you like a second skin. There wasn't any time for this! You needed to get out, all of you, before you burned to death.

"Fuck!"

Another miss.

Next to you a child screamed.  
Your hands curled to fists as you struggled to shoot him without hitting any of the other slaves panicking all around you. You should have killed him first thing first. More slaves dropped down to the ground, shot, and your stomach clenched.

Just when you thought everything lost, when you thought you would die without seeing Anakin again, he stepped out of the shadows and into this hallway. The crowd parted before him.

Anakin kept his eyes straight ahead on the Master as he cut through the slavers. Freeing the enslaved.

You could hear the man's increasing panic. Voice getting louder and louder but it wouldn't matter, you knew. "I am giving you the chance to bow before us, Slave. Die in the flames and your fellows will be spared!"

Anakin did not stop. Anakin did not pause.

You picked up speed running through the slaves you towards one you had seen getting shot down. You had recognized her. You threw yourself down to the ground and over Myrca as an explosion sounded in the distance, shockwave shaking through the building.

"Stop your rebellion or you shall die! I said-"

Anakin sunk his saber into the man's chest, silent and without mercy. He twisted around, cutting through the body with the same ease he would have used to brush the hair out of your face. He advanced further, slashing through everyone and everything that dared to oppose him and stay in his way.

"Are you alright?" you asked Myrca, shouting over the noise. Ears ringing.

She nodded, staggering into your arms, embracing you closer.  
"Look!"

"The Jedi have come to free us," she cried, hands shaking as she pointed at the shrinking figure fighting in the distance. Fighting to free all of you.

You pushed your other blaster into her hands.

"No. Anakin has."

**_______________**

In the end everything was quiet.  
You sat down in the sand next to Anakin.

"What are you thinking of?" you asked.

You winced when he took your hand up to his lips. The pain still fresh, the red still seeping out of the cuts. His mouth toyed with your bruised knuckles, teeth nipping on the skin, tongue lapping up the blood.

"A dream I once had," Anakin replied, his words hot against your skin.

Your eyes flickered to the growing flames behind him. They had only grown in size since you had lit the first one. Fire was everywhere - The smell of burning bodies lingering in the air as the last of the slavers turned into ash. The smell of freedom.

You smiled down at him. A free woman.

"It must have been a good dream."

> **_"I had a dream I was a Jedi. I came back here and freed all the slaves."_** \- Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone notice how not once I allowed them to actually discuss what they felt for each other?  
> I did it because my mind imagined them talking about their feelings for the first time at a happier place, somewhere without bad memories. And thus they won't until they finally leave Tatooine behind once and for all.
> 
> Btw please don't ask me how the fuck I even came up with the title, I don't know either. My brain just went there and then I actually had to come up with an in-universe explaination for it so that nobody would read the title and be like 'Bruh, I guess she must have a spit fetish or something' lol
> 
> That's it folks, I'm stopping myself here before I overshare once again lol. 
> 
> This last chapter was so hard to write lol  
> I had the kitchen scene and a bit of the scene before done ages ago. The aftermath of the riot was one of the very first scenes I wrote for this lmao BUT EVERYTHING ELSE? I sat there staring at my empty word document for ages until today because I knew I wanted this to come out today, so and sat down and wrote.
> 
> ANYWAY, I hope you liked this story :) I personally like it a lot if I didn’t it would be kind of weird lol (But on the other hand I don’t like the first Fanfictions I wrote when I was twelve so yeah lol)
> 
> If there’s any scenes you enjoyed please don’t hesitate to tell me if you want to. I’m simply glad you took the time out of your day to read this! Have a nice day <3
> 
> **Not related to this story! :**  
>  Btw if anyone here reads Kuebiko and follows me on tumblr and wonders why I didn’t post the chapter for that on time - answer: I’m having a very hard row with depression again so yeah, that chapter might actually take some time and the pressure I’m putting on myself doesn’t make it better ahahah


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